


The Dark One’s Lullaby

by LadyLaviniya



Series: Sleeping Star Swans [7]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Babies, Dark Magic, F/F, Lullabies, Mother-Son Relationship, Nursery Rhyme References, Teddy Bears, The Dark One (Once Upon a Time)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-17 23:45:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13087959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLaviniya/pseuds/LadyLaviniya
Summary: First and foremost, she was a mother.If only her child agreed.





	The Dark One’s Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

  * For [justanoutlaw](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justanoutlaw/gifts).



> This is inspired by my amazing friend Taylor, who never fails to get my gears turning lol <3

“ _If you go out in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise_...”

She smiled fondly at the tiny, chubby face of such a beautiful baby boy, making sure to keep her voice just above a whisper.

“ _If you go out in the woods today, you’d better go in disguise_...!”

He stared back at her with wide, unjudging eyes so much like his father, not smiling nor whimpering, just... observing.

“ _For every bear that ever there was_...” She rocked him gently in the rocking chair. “ _Will gather there for certain because_...”

Her smile widened and she carefully freed one of her arms to show him her hand. To her delight, he showed interest and reached for it.

“ _Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic!_ ”

And with the magic granted by the Darkness she harnessed so carefully, she summoned a small teddy bear a slight bigger than her hand. It had a ribbon around its neck with a bell that jingled when she shook it just out of his reach. From whence it came she did not know, but she didn’t especially care either.

She asked for the best because her little prince deserved only the best, and if that was it, it was his.

And for the first time in many days he smiled in her presence. He reached for the toy, begging with grunts and grabby hands, determined to have what she offered because he knew it was for him. She kissed him and obliged, handing him the teddy and shifting him so his soft cheek was on her shoulder.

“ _Every teddy bear who’s been good is sure for a treat today_...” With a faint grunt of her own, she rose again. “ _There’s lots of marvelous things to eat, and wonderful games to play_...”

She sauntered across the room.

“ _Beneath the trees where nobody sees, they’ll play hide-and-seek as long as they please_...”

Gently, slowly, she lowered him into his crib, careful to cradle his head, and wrapping him in the blanket already inside it with her magic. Now clutching his new teddy, baby Henry stared up at her silently, wiggling his legs absently under his mother’s white wool blanket.

“ _Cuz that’s the way_...”

Aurora could feel Emma’s presence behind her in the doorway, a sleeping baby Phillip in her warm arms.

“ _The teddy bears have their picnic_...”

Her own baby began to whimper. He didn’t like her anymore, couldn’t stand her the way Henry could. Her presence, her face, even her milk, he refused it all. She was a stranger to him now, his mother once upon a dream, a dangerous _thing_ designed to teach him the unmistakable concept of abhorrence and fear.

Emma looked about the room, at the ceiling, as if she, too, could see what Phillip was feeling, the manifestation of Darkness clouding the room despite already having the darkness of night. Both mothers locked eyes briefly, and the moment Emma took one step back, Phillip quieted, and they each heaved a sigh.

“Hey,” said Emma.

Aurora nodded. “Hi.”

She looked back down at Henry in his crib, who was fighting to stay awake, and then to Phillip in Emma’s arms, who was settling back into a peaceful sleep.

In the blink of an eye she was no longer in the nursery, but the foyer, listening with an ear toward the stairs to the sounds of Emma putting her own baby boy in his crib, and his protest at having her warmth taken away, and Henry’s sympathetic cries at being equally deprived of touch.

How painful it all was. How unfair and cruel.

Aurora took a seat at the very bottom of the stairs and waited. Soon, Emma would come down and kiss her shoulder and offer her hot chocolate with whipped cream and cinnamon. Emma would forget Dark Ones did not sleep, and stay up with her until she couldn’t anymore, and Aurora would tuck her in and watch over her. She would use Emma’s dreamcatcher to see what she saw, and have herself a smile over how Emma’s brain worked.

She would use her magic to keep her beautiful family safe, and to show her son— _her_ son—she wasn’t someone by whom he should ever be frightened.

Being the Dark One had its rewards, and it had its punishments. But the world was always changing, and so too would those that inhabited that world. She had all the time in the world to prove to her son, and to everyone else, that she, the fair Princess Aurora, daughter of King Stefan and Queen Briar Rose, chosen lover of the Savior Emma Swan, and now the Dark One, was no threat to anyone who did not make her cross.

Until her son was old enough to understand and be persuaded otherwise, she had to endure it, the particularly cruel punishment of his utter rejection.

In time he would see she was not the monster, but the protector.

The Darkness said so, and it, unlike most people nowadays, had a way of being right.

All she had to do was trust.


End file.
